Employee Engagement

25 Most Effective Employee Engagement Strategies For 2024

By
Kiera Abbamonte
Last Updated December 29, 2023

How engaged are your employees?

If your answer is ‘Gee, I’m not sure’, it may be time to create or update your employee engagement strategy.

We hear about customer engagement a lot, but employee engagement has an arguably bigger impact on many key business objectives and outcomes. Highly engaged employees lead to:

  • Better profitability and productivity for businesses
  • Higher sales
  • More customer satisfaction, loyalty, and engagement

Something that can yield all those benefits, among others, is definitely worth investing in.

What Is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement refers to how invested people are in both their everyday work and the success of the business as a whole. Beyond employee satisfaction, engaged employees have a positive emotional connection with the company and feel a sense of purpose in their jobs.

According to Gallup’s 2020 study on employee engagement and performance, teams with higher employee engagement saw both a reduction in negative outcomes—like turnover and absenteeism—and a big lift in organizational success. Results showed businesses with high employee engagement experienced 23% higher profitability, 10% better customer loyalty and engagement, and 18% more sales productivity.

All that is to say: focusing on building greater engagement among employees is well worth the investment, for every business.

What Is An Employee Engagement Strategy?

So employee engagement is important, but it’s not always easy or simple. Research from Zenefits showed 63.3% of companies surveyed find it harder to retain employees than to hire them.

That’s where an employee engagement strategy comes into play. It’s a plan detailing how your company will keep your employees engaged—a way for companies to be deliberate about getting people engaged and to document those efforts explicitly.

Your employee engagement strategy should outline:

  • How you’ll measure engagement—whether via an employee engagement survey or lagging indicators like turnover, absenteeism, and productivity
  • Goals for improving those metrics
  • Your budget for engagement-related initiatives
  • Clear tactics for how you’ll improve engagement, which can include any of the tactics we get into next

We surveyed HR executives and leaders and asked whether or not they have a documented plan written down to help drive employee engagement.

how many companies with a written employee engagement plan

Just under half of the respondents (45%) said yes. Surprisingly, even more of the people we talked with said they have a plan, but it isn’t written down or formalized. Only 6% told us they don’t have any kind of plan or policy to drive engagement.

25 Employee Engagement Strategies And Tactics Worth Implementing In 2023

To find out the best employee engagement strategies you can test out, we talked with 36 executives and Human Resources (HR) leaders from across a variety of industries.They shared their top tactics and the employee engagement strategies that have proven effective for them time and again. Here’s what they had to say:

1. Start With Trust

Trust is a huge part of your employees feeling engaged and valued in the workplace. Without trust, they often feel micromanaged and less important.

According to Suzie Finch, founder of The Career Improvement Club, "Employee engagement is always built on trust.”

“And when you gain that trust,” Suzie added, “magical things start to happen—employees develop a true sense of ownership over their jobs, and productivity rises. Trust also removes that hierarchical divide, it puts everyone on a level playing field, steering and sailing the same ship together as one. Ideas flourish, employees feel engaged and working environments feel uplifted."

2. Give Your People Autonomy

Increases in employee autonomy have a direct impact on job satisfaction. When employees are given autonomy in their job, they feel more responsible for their work and more satisfied with their contributions.

"If you love something, set it free,” advised Shiv Gupta, CEO at Incrementors SEO.

“Give employees autonomy and empower them to do what they feel is truly meaningful and impactful work. It's all about enabling them to shape their own story as opposed to fitting into one we’ve created."

3. Evaluate Your Communication And Alignment

Eric Harris, CEO at MindHandle, noted how the big shifts of 2020 will leave an indelible mark on communication and employee engagement: "Between blended remote and in-person work, new rules for how to meet, safety concerns, and more, there’s a whole new set of criteria for internal communications.”

“An organization that knows what it stands for—and communicates this core belief system regularly—will have a considerable advantage as the world continues to change," Harris concluded.

"Providing clear communication of company and team-wide goals has been particularly helpful in helping our employees be engaged, focused, and 'in it for the long run',” Ben Lamarche, General Manager at Lock Search Group, told us.

employee engagement software

“When employees are in the dark about what’s going on with the company, and formal collaboration and internal communication tools aren't made available, it’s easy to lose the motivation to do your best work."

Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO at Mavens & Moguls, agreed: "Communication is key to all of our community and employee engagement,” Paige said. “To stay connected and keep the team on track, I try to set the tone upfront with one rule: When in doubt, over-communicate. Especially now that everyone is working remotely, it is key to set up regular emails, video, and conference calls.”

“If the lines of communication are open and everyone makes an effort to listen and be heard,” Paige added, “then collaboration will happen naturally and the information will flow."

As for how they facilitate internal communication, more than half of the pros we talked with say they use Slack, the most popular tool by far. There is no shortage of options, so make sure you find one that works for your team and your company’s needs.

Tyler Forte, CEO at Felix Homes, also shared this tip: "To further improve the flow of communication, I adopted ConnectTeam. It is a tool that allows my employees to connect through individual chat and group chats. It’s helped with maintaining day-to-day communication and collaboration within my company. It’s easy to use and encourages efficient and interactive participation between all levels of employees."

4. Get To Know Your People And Truly Care About Them

This tip may seem obvious, but it can be hard to maintain at scale and easy to let fall by the wayside. But this is the core of a successful employee engagement strategy—if you don’t understand your people, all your other efforts will likely fall flat.

"Spend some time getting to know your people,” Bryce Welker, CEO at CPA Exam Guy, advised. “Familiarize yourself with their role, how they feel about the company, and get to know who they are as people when they are not at work—to build the kind of meaningful relationships that create engaged workers."

The most important thing employees need in today's landscape is true, unbridled support from their bosses. Schedule regular check-ins, actually ask how they are doing—both professionally and personally. Get to know them as much as possible so they're comfortable confiding in you," Mason McSpadden, Vice President at WELD Recruiting, added.

"Pay attention to them. Employees generally want to be heard, to recognize they are valued, and to have a link with management. They love it when management knows about them and their interests outside of the workplace,” Kerry Lopez, HR Manager of Incrementors, explained. “This takes time, so take it one conversation at a time, empower them, trust them, and give them responsibility—this will prove one of the best employee engagement strategies.”

5. Implement A Peer-to-Peer Recognition Program To Celebrate Daily Wins

Employee recognition is one of the best ways to make sure that high-performing employees continue to feel important. But recognition from management can easily miss the day-to-day activities. This is where peer-to-peer recognition comes in.

"Peer-to-peer recognition programs are an incredible means of fostering employee loyalty and satisfaction, as well as engagement,” Janelle Owens, HR Director at Test Prep Insight, said. “Our company has adopted such a program because we believe that it contributes to overall employee engagement by empowering employees to recognize and be recognized."

Chris Vaughn, CEO of Saucey, agreed, saying, "When it comes to keeping my remote employees engaged, I always make sure to celebrate their successes every day. Even when it comes to the smallest and most minuscule wins at work, I’ve made it a point to cheer them on. Send your employees a thoughtful message, talk about everyone’s hard work at meetings, and tell them what an incredible job they’re doing."

That all sounds great, but you may be wondering what it looks like in your day-to-day. Here’s an actionable example from Head of HR at Hal Waldman and Associates, Alison Pearson:

“My staff actually came up with a great peer recognition program which has turned out to be a great tool for promoting engagement within our legal teams. Our HR staff has developed a points system where the points are distributed amongst the staff themselves. For example, if one of our accountants notices that the invoices they are receiving from a paralegal have been well-drafted and detailed, they can issue them ‘Shout Out’ points by emailing their assigned HR contact and writing a brief explanation of why this employee should get a shout out.”

“The paralegal can then use their accumulated points to purchase something from our office store—things such as travel mugs or a leather portfolio. This then establishes an office friendship between two peers that might not have interacted much in the past,” Alison explained.

Pro Tip: Creating your own peer recognition program can be daunting. Nectar gives you an out-of-the-box option to boost employee engagement and celebrate great work through a 360 recognition and rewards platform. Book a demo to see how it works.

6. Offer Learning Opportunities And Continuing Education

According to the most recent Gallup State of the American Workplace report, 87% of Millennials say “professional or career growth and development opportunities” provided by a job are important to them.

"Continuing education is an essential aspect of company culture,” Paul French, Managing Director at Intrinsic Search, noted. “One way we motivate and engage our employees is through education reimbursement for company-approved training and courses.”

Paul went on to say, “When employees are supported to acquire new relevant skills or advance existing ones, they feel valued and cared for. Our workers are exponentially more invested in the company because there are clear paths for career growth and development."

Here’s an example from Miranda Yan, Co-Founder at VinPit:

"Most employees are motivated to work when an organization truly invests in their career. Hence, we came up with the strategy to help employees develop their skills and have something to work toward that keeps them motivated.”

“First,” Miranda explained, “we offer a $1,000 education stipend to all employees who have completed six months with the organization. Monthly peer-to-peer learning opportunities are offered, where one of our colleagues teaches a new skill. Additionally, we host a female-focused professional development lunch, and every month, managers attend sessions that teach lessons on core and strategic management skills.”

“We’re also rolling a new program for entry-level employees to help them achieve their career goals and provide best practices for being skilled employees,” Miranda added. 

“This learning and development initiative helps employees understand how we value them as individuals and choose to invest in them, rather than replacing them with other candidates for the skills we desire. This keeps employees more motivated to learn and to strive to perform better."

7. Create A Transparent Work Environment

"Your employees can’t fully invest themselves into something if they don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes and for what they are working on,” Chris Muktar, Founder of WikiJob, told us. “That’s why it is important to be transparent to your employees because this will help them to engage themselves to the organization."

Chris brought up a key point: how do you engage with something you can’t see or understand? When leadership feels like a black box, that’s a recipe for employee disengagement.

"Leadership can think about decisions and policies as a starting ground for greater transparency—they can be candid about internal problems within the organization,” Elizabeth Minei, Ph.D., Director & Consultant at EMinei Consulting, said.

“Above all, leadership must resist the idea of hoarding information as a tool or as a reward for higher-performing employees."

birthday recognition automation platform

8. Be Flexible, Nimble, And Open with Employee Feedback

Letting your employees have a voice and being receptive to what they have to say is key. When your employees know you are listening, they are more likely to contribute and take ownership within the company.

"Build a platform or system that empowers employees to share their ideas and ask queries of the right people," recommended Caroline Lee, Co-Founder at CocoSign.

"You should be flexible and responsive to the concerns of your employees. Keeping the conversation open lets employees know they’re heard and keeps your organization aligned over the coming months," Will Eadie, Chief Revenue Officer at WorkJam, told us.

"We support a constructive exchange of information, and emphasize at every turn that constructive feedback is a solid foundation for growth,” added Ewelina Melon, Head of People at Tidio Chatbots. “We also include our employees in the decision-making process by conducting a brainstorming session to see their point of view on our business and plans." 

"If we don't know what our employees are thinking, things can quickly turn south,” Matt Barnett, CEO at Bonjoro, highlighted. Matt shared this example from Bonjoro’s own employee engagement strategy:

“Because of this, we have implemented regular employee engagement surveys and feedback sessions. The goal of these is to show our employees that the management listens to them and that we care about them and their opinion.”

According to Matt, that doesn’t have to be a cumbersome or overwhelming effort. “By using various questionnaires and surveys we are able to easily gauge the opinions of employees and truly understand their feelings and opinions. These feedback sessions and surveys are conducted periodically, as it helps us find the real issues and help solve them.”

“Also, we have seen that the more our employees are asked for their opinion, the more they will feel valued and trusted,” Matt added, “which in turn empowers them and helps them be more engaging at work."

Pro Tip: Use a pulse survey tool to capture actionable feedback on a continual basis. Annual or quarterly employee engagement surveys are no longer enough to gauge employee sentiment and foster an environment of feedback.

9. Create A Psychologically Safe Workplace For Your Team To Thrive

"Managers should ask themselves, ‘Have I created a psychologically safe workspace for my employees?’' Jeff Harry, Top 100 HR Influencer at Rediscover Your Play, advised. “If not, how can I change this?”

“Work culture is determined by the worst behavior that is tolerated. Toxic people have cost Fortune 500 companies $223 billion in the last five years due to turnover," Jeff added. 

Brandon Monaghan, Co-Founder at Miracle Brand, tied this concept back to our last tip about employee feedback.

"In addition to direct communicating and listening, set up a feedback portal for employees,” Brandon recommended. “This is meant to give them the opportunity to report any comments or concerns without feeling any pressure. It is extremely important to keep an open line of communication between employees, managers, and leadership." 

10. Be Deliberate About Company Culture

"There is a direct correlation between company culture, employee engagement, and productivity,” Jim Beard, the COO of BoxGenie, stated. “Employee engagement stems from having an incredible company culture. Having a great company culture is about tending to the needs of our employees and keeping an open line of communication available for them at all times. It’s a collaborative effort towards making sure our business keeps moving along, even during difficult times."

Eric Wu, Co-Founder & COO at Gainful, agreed, "The key elements of maintaining employee engagement while working remotely are creating a balanced company culture and having employees form personal relationships within the company."

Eric’s point got us thinking about the role of remote work in the employee engagement conversation. Does the rise of remote and work from home arrangements change how companies approach engagement?

how companies see employee engagement

According to our data, the answer is a resounding YES. A whopping 90% of the pros we talked with say the move to more prevalent remote work has shifted how they look at and approach employee engagement.

11. Foster A Sense Of Community And Team Building

This is one tip that’s gotten a lot more complicated as more work shifts online. How do you build a digital employee experience that creates a sense of community and team without being in the same room? It takes more than a ping pong table.

The experts we spoke with had a few ideas, and we've built out a list of 40 team building activities that your team can try at Nectar.

Virtual Happy Hour

"Since it’s a bit difficult to do physical events at the moment, planning virtual events like happy hours, group lunches, etc. can go a long way. The team gets to hang out together without talking about work and can ‘let their hair down,’ which is so necessary in a remote environment,” Artie Baxter, CEO at Paperclips, pointed out.

As an example, Artie added, “There are companies that prepare drink kits or sushi making kits where they send team members everything they need to learn how to make drinks or a sushi night where the team live streams with a chef and learns how to make sushi."

Simulate A Virtual ‘Water Cooler’

"One of the biggest challenges with working remotely is that there is no communal space for authentic connections. It’s hard to have ‘water cooler’ conversations the same way on Slack or scheduled video calls,” Eropa Stein, CEO at Hyre, noted. “What helps our team foster more engagement is creating Google Hangouts meeting rooms that are open during working hours for anyone to hop in and out of. That way, if you want to collaborate or see what other team members are up to, there is always a room they can join."

12. Define And Operationalize Your Core Values

"The best company cultures I’ve been part of revolve around a set of values that are ingrained into the fiber of the employees,” Jakub Rudnik, VP of Content at Shortlister, said.

“This starts from the top down: A lower-level employee will only buy into values or slogans if they are used by leadership at every level in every meeting. It’s one thing to put your values in a fancy wall decal; it’s another to live them. You want them to drive everything the company does, and the values to be brought up so often that it almost becomes a running joke—but in a way that it is the source of truth for your decision making," Jakub added.

Jakub is right—shared core values have proven a key aspect of job satisfaction, particularly among younger workers.

"Your company's core values should remain at the center of its culture, and they should be communicated to all employees from the start. Your core values should describe what applies most to your employees and the beliefs you'll aspire to follow as you grow,” Celynn Leow, CEO at The Halo Pets, recommended. “You'll build a cohesive, supportive work community and inspire workers to form an emotional bond to the company if you actively promote your core principles to the whole team." 

Ronnie Teja, CEO at SoftwareKeep, suggested letting employees lead the way and determine how best to apply those core values to their own lives and work:

"To ensure that our employees are engaged and feel part of the company, as an executive, we set the overall company core objectives and values, then we allow the employees to set their own goals and targets that conform to the company objectives."

13. Provide Regular Feedback

Nick Chernets, CEO at Data for SEO, brought up the elephant in the employee engagement room: feedback from managers to employees. According to Nick, it’s vital to balance positive and constructive feedback.

"A very common mistake managers make is giving feedback only when there is an issue at hand. This way, employees get the feeling that they’re not doing a good job—which can affect overall motivation,” Nick explained. “I have seen a lot of people whose performance dropped simply because they had poor feedback from the manager and didn’t have enough support to deal with dilemmas or challenges." 

14. Make Employee Well-Being A Priority

With ever-connected devices, newly crowned home ‘offices’, and much of social life on hold for the past year, overwork and burnout are at an all-time high for many employees. And that’s no recipe for engagement.

"Providing health and wellness opportunities not only benefits employees’ well-being but also you are helping your business. When employees’ health and happiness matter to you, employees feel valued as members of the company. And when they feel valued, they become less stressed, engage more, and enjoy what they are doing,” said Liam Johnson, CEO at The Hitch Store.

That made us wonder how many companies are actively prioritizing employee well-being—so we asked.

companies with a formal employee wellness program

The vast majority—94%—of companies we spoke with say they have some kind of program or initiative aimed at boosting employee wellness.

"Instilling programs to achieve wellness goals will set high confidence and allow employee engagement to soar,” John Berry, CEO at Berry Law, noted. “Providing resources or activities to deal with high-stress situations through team-based activities like a softball league or offering gym memberships helps show empathy for your employees and care for their overall wellness."

But programs and initiatives are just the start—the attitude around wellness that leadership gives off will impact employee participation in wellness programs.

"I always stress the importance of rest and work-life balance to all of my employees. Make sure they're not overworking themselves by trying to keep up with different time zones, for example," Jason Akatiff, Co-Founder at Boundery, told us.

Editor's Note: You can use a platform like Nectar to create wellness challenges and offer rewards when employees to complete them.

employee recognition platform nectar

15. Provide Extra Employee Perks And Privileges

As competition for top talent has skyrocketed over the last decade, extra little perks and privileges have sprung up—some of them not so ‘extra’ anymore. Some of the more popular perks include:

  • Gym memberships
  • Commuter benefits
  • Continuing education coverage
  • Home office stipends
  • Equity packages

Many of these are table stakes for talented, engaged employees today.

"Provide extra perks and privileges,” Arno Markus, CEO at iCareerSolutions, recommended. “A yoga session, a gym membership, a discount in shopping malls are some of the perks that employees usually enjoy.”

“Having these kinds of extras,” Arno explained, “can keep them sane, improving their mental health, thus keeping them engaged. Employees need something to help them de-stress, and these activities will help them rejuvenate their energy in preparation for another work week."

16. Help Employees Achieve Financial Wellness

“Over 90% of Americans still struggle with COVID-related financial stress,” Kayling Gaver, COO and Co-Founder of Tapcheck, pointed out. “Giving your workers the resources to overcome financial challenges will allow them to perform their best at work by removing a significant portion of their stress.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to give everyone a huge raise. Many of the financial stressors employees regularly face are issues of simple cash flow—money out without money in.

One way to combat that is through ‘Earned Wage Access’ (or EWA).

According to Kayling, “Earned wage access is a great way to give your employees financial flexibility. It’s a low-risk employee engagement strategy that lets workers access the wages they’ve earned before payday.”

“This financial wellness benefit allows them to improve their household cash flow and cover unexpected costs, like medical bills,” Kayling added. “Surveys have shown that employees who have access to EWA demonstrate higher engagement and loyalty and are less stressed.”

“Offer EWA to enhance your employees’ financial wellness and enjoy a more engaged workforce,” Kayling concluded.

17. Build A Solid Onboarding Process

"In my experience, engagement almost always starts with a solid onboarding process,” Markus Albert, Managing Director at Eat First, said. “Leaders and owners get a rare chance on the first day to create a strong emotional investment in the role and company. Over half of new employees decide within the first two weeks of employment whether they will start looking for a new job."

Not to mention, there are tons of other benefits to a solid onboarding strategy—like getting employees to a place where they can add value much faster.

Here’s an example from Sam Richards, Co-Founder at Trivia20:

"We’ve found a solid onboarding plan is crucial to an employee’s long-term engagement. During the onboarding process, make it a point to connect employees in a 360 fashion with other team members so they can see how they can support the entire team at various levels of the org chart,” Sam recommended.

“We also assign each employee an onboarding buddy they can reach out to with questions from how to access shared files to questions about the organizational culture.”

18. Encourage Work-Life Balance

As employees continue their tenure with your organization, they need to balance their work and home life responsibilities. Engagement will decrease if employees consistently have to take work home or work late hours.

Let's take a look at the education sector for a second. Teachers often have a poor work-life balance, which shows up in their engagement scores. According to Gallup, "31% of U.S. teachers are engaged in their work, meaning that less than one in three teachers are involved with, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and their school."

So, what can you do to ensure employees get the work-life balance they deserve?

Set Realistic Work Expectations

What can really be done in a 40-hour workweek when you account for meetings? Make sure that you understand what each team member's workload currently looks like. If they have too much on their plate, consider outsourcing or adding a new team member.

Limit Overtime

Overtime makes employees more money, but it can cut into time for a personal life. You can offer overtime occasionally but don't make it consistent.

Limiting overtime is especially important for salaried employees who don't make extra money when working long hours. Working long hours may seem great for companies wanting to be more productive, but it can cause a myriad of health problems for workers, which makes them less productive.

Pay Employees Well

When employees are paid well, they can spend more time relaxing and enjoying themselves after work hours. In addition, good pay lets employees avoid taking extra shifts or getting a second job.

Deprioritize To Prioritize

When you want an employee to prioritize something new, you must deprioritize something else. For example, if you want an employee to work on a brochure that needs to go out Friday, what can they put on the back burner while they work on the urgent task?

Show And Tell

Employees will follow your lead. They will try to match your work presence if your work-life balance looks off. Tell employees to prioritize their work-life balance and follow up by doing the same.

19. Get Serious About Your Time-Off Policies

Outside of day-to-day work-life balance, companies must get serious about time off. How do you ensure employees take extended breaks and time away from their daily duties? Employees need extra time away from work to think, spend time with family, and relax.

Many companies rely on an unlimited vacation policy. While this is great in theory, it typically makes people take less time off. Therefore, companies need to set time-off expectations that employees can meet and managers can send reminders around. For example, you might have unlimited vacations with a minimum two-week vacation requirement. Managers can then monitor employees to make sure they are taking that time.

Another potential issue employers have with vacations is the length of leave. Some employees may avoid taking extended periods off. While a two-week vacation may not appeal to the organization, longer breaks can profoundly impact employees. It's hard to get out of work mode when you are only off for three days. Encourage your workers to take longer breaks so they can come back to work truly refreshed.

20. Offer Opportunities For Career Advancement And Professional Growth

In a recent Nectar survey on employee recognition, we looked at several potential employee tenure variables. Opportunities for career growth ranked number one for 15.13% of respondents. Employees want to be engaged in companies they see a future with. If employees feel they'll be in the same position 1-2 years down the road, they may get less engaged.

Since growth is crucial for employees, companies must create helpful career development plans for their teams. These plans benefit employees who want to move the needle in their employment and career journey. Outlining where there is room for improvement and giving employees the tools to make those updates is a career game-changer.

Variables with a large impact on employee tenure

21. Create A Diverse And Inclusive Workplace

Diversity is an essential part of a healthy workforce. More than just adding employees from different backgrounds, your workplace must be inclusive to ensure those diverse employees feel welcome.

According to Glassdoor, "More than 3 out of 4 job seekers and employees (76%) report that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers." Furthermore, Glassdoor also found that current employees feel their companies should do more to create a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Since this impacts potential and current employees, it makes sense that more companies are focusing on it.

Here are some helpful strategies your business can use to create a better workplace for diverse employees: 

  • Invest in pay equity to ensure that equal work receives equal pay.
  • Create employee resource groups so underrepresented groups can get the support they need at work.
  • Consider how groups like working parents can be matched with the resources they need to thrive before, during, and after childbirth or adoption.

22. Get Rid Of Office Bullies

Workplace bullying is a troublesome experience for team members. Unfortunately, bullying doesn't stop once your graduate from school. Many of these behaviors can and do seep into the workplace. It can be challenging for employees to speak up about their negative experiences, and once they speak up, leaders may not listen.

Company leaders need to get better at spotting signs of bullying and taking steps to halt this behavior. This process requires a few steps:

  • Lay out specific guidelines about bullying and create a zero-tolerance policy that everyone is aware of.
  • Investigate any acts of bullying that come to your attention.
  • Connect with employees 1:1 to ensure that they feel safe and comfortable bringing up any acts of bullying to a manager or leader.
  • Discipline or terminate employees who engage in bullying at work.

23. Don't Forget About Fun

Fun at work might seem paradoxical, but you can make work exciting for employees. If you are only focused on what employees can do for you, it doesn't make for an engaging experience.

One of our customers, Sparks, uses Nectar to bake fun into the workplace. Showing appreciation for your team, getting them involved in fun activities through challenges, and allowing them to earn prizes for great work can make a huge difference.

You can inject fun at work by doing small things like:

24. Provide Flexible Scheduling And Office Location Options

Hybrid work is here to stay. The pandemic taught employees a lot about how they want to show up to work daily. It's not as simple as all remote or all in-office. Many employees are content to flow between these two states when it suits their needs.

While many companies are taking a hard stance and making employees return to office, the best companies are deploying a hybrid strategy.

So, how do you engage employees by embracing the new world of work?

Figure Out What's Possible

Before you get your team involved, be strategic with your thought process. Flexible work looks different in every industry. If you are a factory, working from home doesn't make sense for most roles, but maybe more flexible hours would make sense to discuss. Before you add employees to the conversation, weed out some of the nonsensical ideas so you can have a more profound discussion.

Ask Your Employees What They Need

A simple survey can help you understand the needs of your team. When sending out this poll, it's important to consider best practices to improve your completion rate so that you can gather more feedback.

You might be surprised that some team members want to work exclusively in-office or remote while others want to do both.

Understand The Logistics

Based on how often employees will want to go to the office, how does that impact your needs? 

  • Do you need a different office space?
  • Should you invest in desk booking software?
  • How will you and your team ensure everyone gets equal attention, no matter their location?

Make Adjustments To Your Policies

Once you understand what your team wants and the logistics behind those decisions, make it a reality. Ultimately, your team will be more engaged if they can work in an environment that suits their needs.

25. Consider Your Offboarding Program

Lastly, crafting an excellent offboarding program is essential for employee engagement. Offboarding is the process of parting ways with a team member, and it can impact the experience of current and future employees.

Example: An employee puts in their two weeks notice with your organization. Leadership isn't happy and decides to terminate the employee on the spot instead. As the employee exits, other team members must scramble to understand what that person was responsible for and how to execute those responsibilities.

When an employee leaves your organization, your first instinct might be anger, frustration, or even hurt. Acting on those feelings can make the workplace experience harder for the employees who are staying with your organization.

So, leaders need to offboard team members with care so that the transition is as smooth as possible for team members and customers.

So, what does a good offboarding process look like?

Take The Two Week Notice With Grace

Instead of being upset about an employee who has decided to leave, it's essential to take that notice gracefully. This two-week period allows the company to wrap up their time on a high note. If their circumstances change or they know someone who is looking for work, they are more likely to recommend your company if you end the relationship well.

Create An Offboarding Checklist

Once you know someone is leaving, you must have a solid game plan. We suggest having a template that you use to offboard employees. It can cover things like:

  • Property that needs to be returned to the company.
  • Software workers currently use that needs to be revoked on their last day.
  • Current roles, responsibilities, and projects that the employee oversees.

Work on this checklist in conjunction with the employee as soon as possible. Consider asking about the documentation of processes to make the transition easier for your team.

Create A Plan For How You Will Handle Current Tasks And Responsibilities

When an employee leaves, there will be a bumpy transition process. Some items will be easily transferred to other positions (at least temporarily), while others must be put on hold until you find a replacement.

It's important to audit the team member's current responsibilities instead of just dumping every item onto your existing team. There is a ton of pressure when someone leaves, and too many additional tasks can make others disengaged. 

Find A Replacement As Soon As Possible

After you've triaged current responsibilities to ensure they are either being paused or moved to another person on your team, start looking for a replacement ASAP. The sooner you backfill the position, the happier your workers will be. Set a timeline for when you'd like the role filled, and work backward to make it happen.

How To Use This Information

Okay, that was a lot of information! The tips above are a wealth of knowledge that we crowdsourced from leaders across industries and locations.

You may have already implemented some of these employee engagement strategies, and it's impossible to effectively use all of them. We recommend picking a few you can really focus on that you feel would have the biggest impact based on your unique circumstances.

Actionable workplace tips & insights for fellow people lovers

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